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There are so many knowledgeable folks on these forums, and I was curious if it's appropriate to ask what everyone does professionally (whether it relates to urban development, or not).

For myself, I just enjoy reading about urban development and quality of life in my community. I am a software engineer and work in Morrisville (reside in W. Raleigh). So, I have no professional input to offer, but like to post anyways.

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Administration dept. at major law firm in downtown Raleigh, on fayetteville street. Am a city booster at heart I guess. Love it, dream job would to be a city planner. Still lost as to whether I want to stay here or relocate to Charlotte.

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I work in RTP in the IT field. Everyday I find new ways to hate the physical nature of RTP. I hate being glued to my car. RTP is almost exclusively large disconnected campuses with no street frontage and huge parking lots hidden behind acres of trees.

There is no retail or residential in the park at all (probably by design), so going anywhere for lunch, or to obtain fuel, bubble gum, office supplies, etc requires getting in your car and actually leaving the 7000 acre park to track down the aforementioned materials.

There are a number of cafes and little stores in my campus, as well as others... so being in your car is not a necessity, but that also creates a monopoly in a way since leaving your campus for another one is not really a viable option.

Durham County around the perimeter of the park seems to be developed enough with shopping centers of varying quality (heh), restaurants, a little residential, and loads more office space... but it still doesn't change the fact that RTP's code of development is perhaps a bit dated.

Wake County along the southern edge of RTP (Morrisville) is starting to really blossom, and though it is more sprawl, I have hopes that downtown Morrisville may one day become a nice little mini-urban center--since it is not too far from the edge of RTP or the airport.

Wow, I think I win the award for wandering the furthest off topic. Yay!

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I own a graphic design firm in North Raleigh. My goal is to eventually move my firm downtown. I've just always been a Raleigh supporter/booster since I moved here from CT 8 yrs ago. Also, a big believer in the fact that the benefits of a strong, vibrant downtown extend a lot further than just a few square city blocks.

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I actually live in VA Beach but am originally from NC. I work in a real estate dept for a global bank here in town. Not a bad job I guess. I live in the highly developing Town Center area of VB (the most urban part of this suburban city).

I am highly addicted to UP and I sometimes wonder did I miss my life's calling as an urban planner or such. I also enjoy photographing buildings (built or in construction phases) and housing in cities.

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I am a dentist and life-long Raleigh resident. I have always enjoyed visiting bigger cities. I live near N. Hills and love my car, however I really like Marta and Metro in DC and would strongly consider using it if it were on my beaten path. (of course if I worked in RTP, I wouldn't love my car quite so much - it has a manual transmission!).

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Heh, sorry to disappoint. Although there are a few such people among us, and others have acquaintences who are architects/planners, the architects and urban planners themselves aren't generally at liberty to talk candidly about projects that they are involved in.

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I am a dentist and life-long Raleigh resident. I have always enjoyed visiting bigger cities. I live near N. Hills and love my care, however I really like Marta and Metro in DC and would strongly consider using it if it were on my beaten path. (of course if I worked in RTP, I wouldn't love my car quite so much - it has a manual transmission!).

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I guess I am not suprised at all the IT folks on here given the proximity to rtp. Sounds like this forum has brought together a lot of people with very similar interests in the area.

I invited Daniel Douglas (Senior Planner and Director - Urban Design Center, Raleigh) to the forum to post as well. I am hopeful he is able to join the discussion and provide some good feedback. Though, I doubt he has as much free time to kill at work as I do!

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Yeah, work in IT tends to come in waves... I've only been here for a month, but I've found that there are some days when I'm drowning in cases from bunches of different customers, and other days when I have practically nothing to do. On those days, I just sit around writing scripts to automate tedious tasks and click "refresh" on UrbanPlanet every 15 minutes.

Today is one of those "scripting" days.

Maybe I should write a script to automate clicking "refresh" on UrbanPlanet every 15 minutes...

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I grew up n Raleigh and graduated from NCSU with a Civil Engineering degree in 1998, and after working in consulting for a few years, I now work for NCDOT in DT Raleigh. I also live near Glenwood/Hillsborough St, so I am one of the few who get to walk to work each day. I have always loved city planning and even considered a masters in planning, but eventually decided to move into the workforce. I am really excited to follow what's going on in DT Raleigh these days.

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I moved to Raleigh as a kid in 1971 and lived "inside the beltline" when there was not really a beltline. I graduated from that urban High School on Peace Street and went to college out of state but ended back here for MBA school and to work. I have seen Raleigh grow for the good and the bad. I lived in 5-points for 8 years and then moved to ranch house near North Hills which is less than a mile from a Phase II TTA

I work at the largest IT company in the world in product/supplier/relationship management in RTP. I have been lucky to travel the world to some of the greatest cities through work and play (Shanghai, Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Paris, London, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Krakow, Budapest, etc.....)

Per the name, I am a subway fanatic and try to travel for fun where there is mass transit. My former neighbor in 5-points is a Landscape Arch. and we would stay up at night drinking discussing what Raleigh could become. We would walk the tracks (sometimes at night) and plan rail transit and the development around it. If I could do anything else, I would probably be a developer.

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I am a Store Manager in Cary but live right near NC State off of Trailwood Rd. I guess I have been interested in City development since the first Sim City came out. Now im going to go to school next fall 06 (either ECU or UNC) for an Urban Affairs, City and Regional planning degree with a concentration in land use development. Then I plan to get my Masters at some school in the country in planning hopefully at UNC. I too got really into this when I found out about the Progress Energy building going up and found the city website with all of the projects going on.